The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

SNL 3 hy 8 PORT PERRY STAR -- Wednesday, June 2, 1976 Scugog's emergency services tested At shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday, an explosion ripped through the Commun- ity Arena on Water Street, injuring 35 people. Only, through the best use of fire, police, medical and other volunteer services could a community of this size pos- sibly hope to cope with such an emergency. ' The "disaster was only a mock-up, but officials found what they wanted to know, Through the.co-ordinated ef- forts of the many services in the area, Port Perry can cope with such an emer- geney...and do a very good job of it. It was the first time such a FAN NOT NER eS PEARY FA wy Y LITLE wt ETRY LATO ie TAA FT ELT v mock disaster has been held since 'the revision and up- dating of the 30-page disaster manual, and hospital admin- _istrator Dave Brown called the exercise 'very Success- ful". JF "Things got off to a some- what slow start, but once on the way, it went very well," he said. ' Fire, ambulance and police were at the scene within minutes. Even while fire department crews were setting up emergency gas- oline generators to provide electricity inside .the "ruins", ambulance crews were lifting victims onto stretchers and into ambul- b J FXG SAA Lit NB RR SS fo \ r} + . pe LORNA bua s blading ui hsrvat ie Vain anataok io ve buds hb a { ah Ya ances for the short ride to Community Memorial Hospital, 'Hospital switchboards were busy as emergency calls went out to medical and other staff, as well as volun- teer and other hospital ser- vices. Most functions went: as planned. One fire. truck, : parked near the rear emer- gency entrance, would use its radio for emergency com- munications should regular communications with the disaster area break down. In the hospital, emergency areas were set up. An assessment centre, emer- gency treatment, holding and other areas were set up to handle the incoming' injured. Signs hung from ceilings-designating even news media "areas and relatives waiting areas. Prior knowledge of the. drill'was kept to a strictly need-to-know basis. Accord- ing to Mr. Brown, efforts to keep the planned disaster a secret were successful. "If you are going to test our readiness for this kind of thing, it has to be a complete surprise." °° . The idea behind such exer- cises is not only to rehearse and test facilities and staff, but also to find the 'bottle- necks" in the system...where potential problems might occur during a real disaster, To try and find such prob- lem areas, a number of, observers were on hand at the hospital and arena area. Armed with clipboards and pencils, it was their job to observe and make recom- mendations at information sessions following the event. Such recommendations would be studied by emer- gency planners and possibly . incorporated in the disaster mang * . Brown already has some idea of where changes .are going to have to be made. Security will have to be stepped up, and a number of John Photos, story by Gast areas will have to add more equipment, bandages, and -other provisions for handling the large number of casual- "ties. Within just a few minutes, points out Brown, all the basic "facilities at the hos- pital must be functional, from the pharmacy to X-ray and operating rooms.. Re- -gardless of the .manpower néeded to handle the disaster victims, the hospital's regular patients must also be taken care of. "It's quite a complic: effort," said Mr. Brow "The fact that it went so: is a credit, not only. to disaster® ¢fmmittee th been planning for just sys disaster, but'all the med and other staff, plus effort of the many ol police, fire, and volun services that simply hav work together to make kind of thing work." «E SUPPORTIVY ily } al Walking "wounded" are led to care facilities